Meanings and Musings...on Technological Dependence

A few things happened to me yesterday. I had the final show of one of the opera seasons I'm doing (and went to "The Library", a themed lounge bar, for some divine desserts afterwards).  The trumpet I bought online arrived in the mail, so I can officially start learning now!

And, the bad news, my computer charger broke, so my computer ran out of battery life and died.

I'm currently typing this on a computer in a library. I've ordered a new charger and it should arrive in a few days...but in the meantime I am a bit ashamed to admit the feeling of uneasiness I have at the lack of a computer...even though some of it is legitimate (difficulty in submitting applications saved on my computer, inability to listen to CD's, studying German vocabulary in a computer application, having to actually write down in advance details for a new piano teaching job starting tomorrow...etc).

My current predicament got me thinking about how we are so dependent on technology, and how many of us probably spend 2-3 hours a day using our computers, or watching television, or on our phones. I was curious enough to work it out - 3 hours a day equates to 1095 hours a year, or about 45 days per year...if we live to 80 that ends up being 10 years of our life spent on technological activities! And with 2 hours a day (still basing this on living 80 years) it's 6.6 years, and with 1 hour that goes down to 3.3 years.

That's entire YEARS of our life devoted to an activity where we remain sitting in one spot, reading or watching or surfing some virtual reality. Isn't that incredible? Just think of the imaginary conversations that might occur in heaven between people before technology and people of today...the disbelief that people from the past would have in reaction to spending that much time doing something with no active involvement! The number of "years wasted per life" is only going up as technology advances.

Technology...it can both help capture and
cause you to miss views like this!

I didn't have a cell phone for my first 3 years in NZ. Then I got one in my second year of university. Now I feel as if I couldn't do without one. It's amazing how quickly we come to depend on these things in our lives. (I can still do without Facebook and the technology of social networking though - more on that later!)

Sure, times are changing. People date online, work online, read books online, shop online, all the time. This is the new way of life. You may need a cell phone to have a job, as your employers will contact you this way.

But we should all try to limit our time using technology, to minimize the years of our lives wasted, and enable ourselves to go and do more of the things that don't use technology. The best thing to do is use cell phones and computers to facilitate social interactions, rather than replace them! It'd be good for all of us to spend more time reading, interacting with each other, exercising, and learning and developing new hands-on skills that actually impress people with tangible results - like art, music, dance, carpentry, gardening, traveling (or earning/saving the money to travel)...the world is your oyster!

I am going to try to have a total limit of 2 hours per day using technology. (And that's still over 30 full days a year online!) This will include writing, email, studying, working, plus all the leisure activities like TV/movies, surfing the web, reading blogs, etc.
In weeks where I need an exception, I'll also consider this a weekly limit of 14 hours if I am planning to have a movie night or really need to study for something coming up or am working on a big project. But it does ensure that not every night becomes movie night, as it can tend to do, especially when you and your friends or family get into that habit together. Try doing other things when you've got company too, playing games, having conversations, reading books, or learning and working on new skills together.

I don't want to have given years of my life to technology. Do you?

Bulletproof Coffee

In my post about Rain I mentioned something called "bulletproof coffee." Now I'm going to explain what I meant by that!

Basically everything you need to know can be found here:

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/how-to-make-your-coffee-bulletproof-and-your-morning-too/

The "Bulletproof Executive" writes about living life in a state of optimum performance, getting leaner, having more energy and even upgrading brain function and increasing IQ. A big part of this is the food you eat, or choose to avoid. The bulletproof diet is about only choosing foods that have a positive effect on your body, and avoiding those with negative effects.

New World, a supermarket chain in New Zealand

I've probably gotten the most so far from the key points about eating healthy fats and eliminating sugar from the diet. I don't eat completely "bulletproof" (yet, anyway), but I do enjoy starting my day with a cup of bulletproof coffee.

I do this from what I have access to in my the supermarkets here, with single-origin plunger coffee grinds, unsalted grass-fed butter, and MCT oil ordered from iherb.com. 




On the surface this might sound like simply skipping breakfast in lieu of coffee, but in reality the fats from the butter and MCT oil keep you full, just as a meal of solid food would have. And the big upside of starting the day like this is that bulletproof coffee has no toxins, so you start off the day with fresh and healthy fuel rather than with sugars and toxin-contaminated fats. The description and explanations from the Bulletproof Executive website above will probably any questions you might have!

I've also found that just from partially implementing this diet, my cravings for sweet foods have decreased. I no longer find the idea of sugary candy appealing. Chocolate and dairy products I'm still working on, but I am optimistic that when I am following the diet more fully I will no longer crave those either.

Again, the big take-home message for me from this way of eating is that healthy fats are better than sugar, and they keep you more full and provide your body with less toxins, and therefore more energy! I would highly recommend that everyone at least try a week of having bulletproof coffee for breakfast, and see if it works for you too!

And yes people, that is Mozart on the coffee mug...true music enthusiast here,
from the first thing in the morning!

An American In New Zealand...The Best Things

And finally the companion post to "The Worst Things" about New Zealand - here are some of the best things about this country: 

1. The food!
Like any foreign country, New Zealand has some signature food products and meals. It's always a fun and new experience trying unfamiliar foods in other countries. When I first came here as a moody teenager, I used to say that toffee pops and RJ's licorice were the only good things in NZ. 

Now that I've matured (a bit a least), I have expanded those ideas. New Zealand also has:
L&P - a fizzy lemon drink, that's kind of similar to sprite but with a stronger lemon flavor and more energetic fizz

Pineapple lumps - a candy that doesn't actually taste much like pineapple, but is pretty good nonetheless - made up of yellow taffy covered in chocolate

Fish and Chips - iconic takeaway meal of NZ

Feijoas and tamarillos - two fruits I hadn't tried before coming to NZ, and probably the healthiest thing on this list...

Tamarillo, feijoa

Pavlova - baked dessert comprised of a soft meringue covered in whipped cream and summer fruit, popularly served at Christmas (apparently there is some debate over whether NZ or Australia invented this!)

Hokey Pokey ice cream - "hokey pokey" is a kind of honeycomb toffee that has a lot of little holes in it, making it easier to eat. Cadbury makes a "Crunchie" chocolate bar that is a bar of hokey pokey covered in chocolate. Hokey Pokey ice cream is usually vanilla ice cream with pieces of hokey pokey in it, and it's a very popular flavor in NZ. Cadbury makes a version of this that's even better though, with chocolate and honey flavored ice cream. 

New Zealand also has great dairy products, like cheese and butter, which is known and imported worldwide. Also NZ is currently more innovative and adventurous with their pizza toppings than the America I left in 2009 was...their Domino's, (which only got here in 2003) has a pizza called "Mr. Wedge" that actually has potato wedges as a topping. (I haven't checked up on American pizzas since then though, so I don't know the state of things now.) Also "custard square", though often very bland-tasting, is worth trying for the novelty of having custard, between squares of pastry. 

Not to mention that it has a lot of "British" products that America doesn't have in supermarkets, like Tim Tams, (if you have access to these, you HAVE to try the "Tim Tam Slam") and Cadbury chocolate and ice cream.

Other fun fact: sweet potatoes are commonly called "kumara" here, as that is what the native Maori people call them.



2. Nature 



Pancake rocks

New Zealand is known for having beautiful scenery and natural formations. There's such a lot of them here in this small country, and they've got mountains and beaches very close to each other. Not to mention other things like glaciers, pancake rocks, caves, cliffs, rivers, geothermal activity like geysers, hot springs, and mud pools, and lakes. And in general it's a very green country, with nice forest areas bordering the highways, so there are always things to see out the window on a road trip!




The very green view from my window at home!

3. Relaxed and artistic lifestyle 

A decorated bus stop

(This is perhaps excepting Auckland, NZ's big city...) New Zealand is full of people who have a more relaxed, take-life-as-it-comes attitude to life. Sometimes, moving through life at a slower pace is a good thing that many foreigners can learn from. There are beautiful old buildings, retro art-deco inspired structures, and quirky, unique artworks and sculptures all around many NZ towns. It's quite refreshing. (Some of it's really great, and some of it is stuff you won't see anywhere else...perhaps for a reason!)

The "Bucket Fountain", Wellington, NZ

Plus, the widely-known fact about there being more sheep than people NZ is not obvious to anyone living there, I haven't seen any great number of sheep in my time here when driving between places.

4. Healthcare
Now, this was also on my "worst things" list, but the big plus about healthcare in NZ is that it's free! Here, they do have a free (or heavily subsidized) public healthcare system. People do also have their own private doctors that they pay for, but even in those cases prescription medicines are so much cheaper than they are in America. 

5. Environmentally conscious (and no nuclear)
New Zealand, being a very green country, is very keen to stay that way. New Zealand has legislation against nuclear weapons and energy. Environmental conservation and projects like recycling are well-publicized: recycling is collected from homes along with the trash, and there are "rubbish bins" (also known as trash cans) specifically for recycled goods in town. Also, most toilets in NZ have half- and full-flush options to save water!

6. Accessible culture 
Especially in Wellington, the country's capital, there are a lot of events with international origins. If a group or organization comes here they'll most likely be visiting somewhere within driving distance of anyone in NZ, whereas in a big country you may not have access to where they're performing. Plus even though it's a small country, New Zealand still has its own ballet and opera companies, symphony orchestra, food festivals, theatre, lots of international courses (eg. cooking, dancing) available, and not to mention, sports, such as the favorite of NZ, rugby. If you are a sports fan, NZ's rugby team, the All Blacks, is worth following. 

7. Random little positive quirks: 
- Carrying the gold coins they have (representing $1 and $2) makes you feel like a pirate, and their money is so colorful it seems like play money - and, the notes are very easy to tell apart
- No central heating means fireplaces/other cozier forms of heating, plus the opportunity to wear thick "grandma sweaters"
- Cheaper university ("tertiary") education
- Hobbits! And other Lord of the Rings memorabilia 
- The growing multiculturalism of the country
- The NZ accent makes this list too, as though it's utterly nonsensical but it can still be    
  charming to us foreigners...sometimes



All in all, though I personally don't want to live here forever, it's definitely a nice place to live or visit for awhile. 

A-Muse: "New Zild"

Fabulous examples and explanations of the New Zealand (or "New Zild") accent can be found at this link: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/new-zild-2005

The specific "beer-bear, hear-hair" example I mentioned in my last post, (the worst things about New Zealand) is shown at about 5:15 in the video, to comical effect.

And for you New Zealanders out there, not to worry, "Best Things About New Zealand" post to coming soon!

An American in New Zealand...The Worst Things

I am 100% American by birth, but have lived in New Zealand for over 4 years (arrived on Valentine's Day [Feb. 14th] in 2009). My whole family moved here when I was 16 years old, and very unwilling to leave my friends, freedom, and accustomed way of life in small-town America - up until then, my home had been in Vermillion, South Dakota. However I had been to NZ before, as my dad grew up here, and I have a passport/citizenship as well. (I also have one for the UK, so that's three!)

Anyway, there are good and bad things about any country - and I'm sure lots of people can think of some good and bad things about America, as it's so widely broadcasted. But New Zealand is a smaller and more out of the way place, so I thought I'd do a couple of lists from what I've experienced during my time here so far. A lot of things are both good and bad things in their own ways, so may appear on both lists. And I don't claim to be an expert in any of the subjects I talk about, these are just my own opinions and perceptions! There will be other things that I don't know about that I don't mention as well, just because I don't know about their American equivalents, for example, taxes/amount of money made from an average job. (From what I've heard, both of these are better for individuals in America, as in, less work = more money there, but I haven't got firsthand knowledge of this.)

The Worst Things About Living in New Zealand:

1. Convenience
Being so far away from major production centers means that access to some products is more difficult or delayed. We often have to order things from overseas and sometimes pay very high shipping fees to get them here. These can be things like specific brands of clothing or books (which retail for quite high prices in NZ compared to overseas) or work/study-related things like sheet music, specific texts, strings/reeds/parts/accessories for musical instruments or cars or other hobbies one has. Shops in NZ can't stock as many brands as there are overseas simply because the country is smaller and far away. 

So as a result, sometimes if we want to get a book (for example) that's $50 retail price here (assuming it is available here), we'll look online and find it for $20 overseas, but then have to pay $20 on top of that for shipping and while we still end up saving money overall, it's less convenient. And the thought that people overseas can have the item for $20 without paying shipping costs is a little annoying. 

Flights and travel to different countries is a lot more expensive from NZ because usually we've got a lot farther to go. So while that's perfectly justified, it can still be frustrating.

And finally, movies and games and new products like technology, cosmetics, foods, etc. take longer to get here, sometimes ridiculously so. A friend of mine took a trip to New York in December, and saw the movie "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" on the plane trip there. (I believe it was released in September 2012). I haven't managed to leave NZ since I got here, and had to wait until this year, the 23rd of April to be precise, to see it. That's a delay of 8 months! The only thing we get first here is Lord of the Rings... and the sunrise, being in the first timezone. 


2. Less competitive (and less ambitious attitude)
I noticed this especially when I first got here in high school, with sports teams and other extra-curricular activities. Keep in mind that I was from a small town in America and came to a small town in New Zealand, so therefore can compare more realistically. In America, we practiced every day after school in for sports, debate, or theater. In New Zealand, we had on average, two practices a week for sports, and one meeting for debate or theater a week. 
(At least in Nelson that was the case, where I went to years 12 and 13 - they have the same number of years but go up to 13 instead of 12 in America because they start with year 1. Also they used to use "forms" and those were different numbers as well!). 

People didn't seem to care as much about their record or improving themselves as much as possible. Since they live in a somewhat isolated place, they never really have a reason to have higher ambitions unless they want to go elsewhere.

This applied to school as well. Their grading system is different to start with, with four options: not achieved, achieved, merit, and excellence, rather than percentages. The system is scaled so that it's quite easy to achieve, but very difficult to get excellence, and their goal is that everyone passes, or "achieves". We were taught how to answer the "achieve level" questions in class, and then if everyone understood those, we moved on to merit level questions, and then the excellence ones. Sometimes we didn't get that far in class though and had to ask the teacher if we wanted material to cover the excellence level questions in our own time. (Hopefully larger schools with a better program would be able to cover the higher levels during class time, but regardless, this is the grading system that is standard in NZ.)

They actually have a saying - "tall poppy syndrome," which means that they chop down (or at least don't encourage) people to be "tall poppies" or go above and beyond the task at hand, they don't push people to achieve more than their peers or show off their talents. There is a more complex explanation of this involving politics and resentment (that makes this saying sound less negative) which you can read about here if you are interested.



This is a poppy - typically seen worn as pins/brooches around April 25th, the NZ holiday Anzac Day

3. More competition (for good jobs)
Ironically after point #2, though the NZ culture is generally more laid-back and less competitive, there can be a lot of competition for specific jobs. Because the country is smaller there is often less here for people in a specialized field. 
For example, there are just two orchestras in NZ that qualify as full-time, and only one of those is any comparison (salary-wise) to the big orchestras overseas. 
Musicians typically hold their posts for a long time - once you've gotten into an orchestra you're probably not going to leave unless you've found another job or are too old to play anymore. And there are always many musicians auditioning for one vacant post. So basically, if you audition for the NZSO (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and don't get the job, you could be waiting years before there is another audition for that position. And I'd imagine that it's the same (albeit to a lesser extent) for other fields like science or law. 

4. Expenses
Every country will have things that cost more or less, but in NZ a lot of basic things tend to cost more. Things like groceries, simple clothing like t-shirts and jeans, places to live, and also more specific things like dental treatments cost a lot more here than they do in the US. Part of it is probably that we are far away and things need to be transported here. And, dental insurance is not as common to have here as it is in America, so it's bad luck for people who have troublesome teeth. 
As with everywhere, it's possible to find cheaper-than-average flats to rent, or food, or clothing, but in comparison to the US it will always be more expensive here in NZ. 

5. Healthcare
New Zealand is great in that it has free healthcare - however, sometimes this means having to wait for important operations or having to share wards with several other patients. An uncle of mine had to have surgery on a broken leg and had to wait quite awhile before having the operation. This resulted in several days of being told not to eat anything as he may have surgery that day, and then not actually having the surgery. Which in addition to having a broken leg, cannot have been a pleasant experience. 

5. Central heating
Because this is an island nation, the seasons are more mild than somewhere far inland. Cooler summers, warmer winters, which on the surface may sound great. However, this also means that things like air conditioning and central heating are less prevalent, and a lot of houses don't have them (and they're more expensive to get installed). And while the weather is milder, it still gets pretty cold in winter without heating, and often people often have get out the space heaters and hot water bottles (something I'd never used in America) to try and stay warm at home. 

6. Less of a range (specifically, of food)
Compared to America, NZ definitely has less convenience and frozen foods, and less types of candy and cookies and things like that. And no pop tarts or sugary cereals or toaster strudels or any of that nonsense we market as "breakfast." This sounds like a good thing, for health anyway. (Although I've started to really miss peanut butter M&M's, which can be found in specialty shops here for extortionate prices.)

However this also means that there are less brands to choose from when buying other, essential groceries and this probably partly accounts for the expenses being higher. And it is an example of less competition between brands. It's just a different consumer experience.

Also, certain foods are quite different here. If you order a milkshake here in NZ you will probably get a glass of what seems like cold, slightly bubbly, flavored milk. What we call milkshakes in America, with ice cream, are called "thickshakes" here. Luckily though, places are starting to progress with this, and I've found a couple of places that do milkshakes the REAL way.

Finally, bacon is something totally different here too. What we know as bacon in America is specifically "streaky bacon" in NZ, and is a lot more expensive than what they call bacon (pictured below). It does not get crispy, comes in large slices, and my brother describes it as "heated-up ham". So if you are a bacon lover, be prepared!

7. HOLIDAYS and flipped seasons
 Holidays are less of a big deal here, like Christmas and New Year's and Halloween and Thanksgiving and the 4th of July (both of which they don't have) and Valentine's Day and Guy Fawkes Day and Anzac Day (which is one of theirs). I find that New Zealanders in general (to make a real blanket statement here) seem to have less of an idealistic and romantic outlook on life, and don't take every opportunity to let their hair down as much as we Americans do. 
What's more, the flipped-around seasons of the Southern hemisphere are AWFUL. Having Christmas in Summer? Just wrong. And it means that you've got to go the whole stretch of Winter (June-August, basically) without any major holiday celebrations. In America practically every month of Winter has a holiday, and it does wonders for keeping the spirits up when skies are literally gray. Which they are in NZ during winter too, often with a ton of Rain, which I've spoken about before on this blog.

And last but not least:
8. NZ accents
I know a lot of people will disagree on this one. But really, the NZ accent sounds undecided and a bit sloppy with its vowels, and therefore it sounds different without being very distinctive. Maybe there is something wonderful about that, that I will come to appreciate later. But as of now it just sounds lazy to me. The fact that I couldn't imitate one if I tried, yet am somehow slowly absorbing it in my own accent (so my American friends tell me) is horrifying. 

However, foreigners can find ways to capitalize on the hilariousity* value of this by asking a New Zealander to say a word with a short "e" sound, like "leg" or "pen" and observe what they do to that "e". Also, the sentence "a bear drinks beer" will be amusing, as most "Kiwis" (as they call themselves here due to their national bird, the Kiwi)^ will pronounce "bear" and beer" very very similarly if not identically. Same with "ear" and "air" and "hear" and "hair", you get the idea. They've also got some interesting phrases, like "sweet as", which means a kind of generic agreement (like saying "cool"), and saying "munted" to mean "broken or messed up". 





 This is a kiwi (bird), nocturnal and flightless -

guess the flights here were too expensive for him too, ha ha



And this is a kiwifruit!
Which one can and probably should eat the skin of, by the way

*Yes, I am aware that "hilariosity" is not a real word as of now...and I am also aware that footnotes are perhaps not typical of blogging!

^This is why in New Zealand they specify "kiwifruit" when referring to the fruit, as to them just saying "kiwi" generally means the bird!

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight

A-Muse: To Brighten Your Day!

 This is a new segment of this blog, called "A-Muse," which is of course derived from the word "Musings" in my blog title. A-Muse is intended to mean both "a muse," as in "an instance of reflection and thought" and "amuse" as in "to appeal to the sense of humor." (Notice how the American in me refuses to spell with the "our" endings as they do in NZ...old teachings die hard and "humour," "colour," and "favourite" will forever look wrong to me!)

Can't argue with that...

Lenny Kravitz in a huge scarf! (November 23, 2012 - Source: FameFlynet Pictures)

And finally, the wisdom of Roald Dahl. He is a happy-maker! If you have not read his books than go do so now, whatever your age, background or stage of life.

Palmerston North

Somehow, I never feel fully settled at home after a trip until the unpacking is done. And even for just a weekend trip, this can be a daunting task. However, the fact that our university courses were cancelled today (due to earthquake building checks) leaves me with no excuse for putting off the task any longer.



Aside from the earthquake experience in my last post, the Palmerston North trip was really fun. The bus trip wasn't too long, and for NZ, the roads were really smooth without too many hills and not too winding, with great views out the window. (And some snapdragon flowers on the way too. Had fun with those as a child, making them talk...some things never change!) 



A lot of the smaller towns in New Zealand that I've been to have a really fresh feel, (like Napier in particular!) and they all seem to have some quite unique artistic features, which is great. Palmerston North fits in with this: their information centre in the middle of town plays classical music on speakers, and is surrounded by a grass park area called "The Square", which contains a butterfly-shaped pond, fountains, artsy chairs, a few statues, and a clock tower.


And right now there was also an ice skating rink in The Square, which I took advantage of during my free time before Sunday's show, and tried ice skating for the first time! It turned out to be a lot of fun, and it was great to experience that feeling of apprehension before doing something you've never done before, and then conquering it as you get the hang of it, and eventually feeling (slightly) more in control and enjoying the activity. We probably spend a lot of the first 10 years of our lives feeling like this a lot, and then we experience this less and less as we get older - I think we should try to make sure we're experiencing this as often as possible, it's really satisfying to venture out of your comfort zone and come out on top. And even if you don't come out on top, it's good to give it a try anyway! 

We had some pretty great meals out too, at classic "New Zealand" restaurants such as Lone Star and Burgerfuel. Lone Star is known for its cowboy-Western theme, large portions and classic comfort foods like ribs and roasted potatoes. Their motto is "Be Staunch, Walk Tall" - I remember having a tshirt that said this on the back when I was a in grade school, sent to me from my relatives in NZ. (Boy did I feel like a cool kid in that tshirt). 


Burgerfuel is also a NZ chain that opened in 1995, with the concept of serving gourmet burgers with fresh and natural ingredients. The result is quite a varied menu of really tasty burgers, some beef, others chicken or lamb or even vegetarian. They've also got great milkshakes, something I only found out at this most recent visit - they're thick and creamy like the ones in America, rather than more thin milky like the typical NZ milkshakes. They call the thick and creamy ones "thickshakes", they're actually a different thing in a lot of places. So I was pleasantly surprised to order a milkshake and have it remind me of the ones we get in the US. (Maybe I will have to return there soon when the next real milkshake craving strikes, and if so I can do a more in-depth review of the place and its service!) 

And last but not least, the shows were pretty good too. I just realized, the earthquake made me forget that something else out of the ordinary also happened to me during the last show - as the orchestra was tuning for the first overture, my D string snapped and I had to do a quick replace - and since our strings need "playing in," my D string kept going flat throughout the show and I had to keep quietly adjusting it...

So all in all an adventurous and satisfying weekend, with a welcome day off of school today to get the typical weekend errands (like groceries and laundry) done. Passed some buildings with broken glass windows in town, but otherwise luckily it doesn't look like too much has been damaged. 

Now to get back to routine...

Earthquake!

On my trip to Palmerston North, NZ (that I mentioned a couple of posts ago, playing in an orchestra accompanying an opera) something truly out of the ordinary happened. 

The first performance on Saturday night was good, some minor little opening-night rough patches noticeable to the performers, but nothing too unexpected. But on Sunday afternoon...
It was the finale of Act III, the last number in the whole opera, and the music was just rising for the final climax (musicians flipping to their last page), with all the solo singers and full chorus joining in, full-strength when it started. The theatre started shaking, and quite violently. Sitting in the pit, it wasn't immediately apparent what was happening, most of us so focused on our music that we started to play on. But as the shaking continued it became obvious that something was wrong, the singers stopped singing and the conductor stopped, and after a moment of stunned silence, told us all to head out of the pit. I have no idea what the audience was doing, presumably the ushers were instigating an earthquake evacuation plan to get them out of the building. We could see the chandeliers minutes afterwards, still swinging from the force of the shaking. 

One is always reminded about these plans and what to do when natural disaster strikes, but when it actually does occur it becomes surprisingly hard to think of the best thing to do in the given situation you are in. I would have played on, quite undisturbed by the interruption if everyone else had just kept going too! As it was, there were only about two minutes left in the show, and the ending had been made pretty clear, so we didn't go back to finish it for the audience. Wellington also experienced the earthquake, at a magnitude of 6.5 (lasting around 45 seconds), with a few smaller aftershocks following. There had been one earlier on Friday morning (5.8) that I experienced at home, lying in bed. And I had experienced a few aftershocks in Christchurch before, so this wasn't my first experience with earthquakes. It's pretty impossible to expect them though, to be prepared for the shaking of the earth like that - it's simply awesome, as in, "awe-inspiring/daunting, inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear." Our planet Earth is definitely an awesome place, with countless wonders...(and things to wonder about!) 

It's strange to see your city broadcasted on world news, or to read about the earthquakes here in New Zealand, so far away, in American news articles. It's also really nice, and a reminder that the world is so global these days, that there are people from different countries living all over the world who are interested in reading about their homeland, or the home of their families or friends. (Or in my case, my homeland writing about the country where I currently live). 

The earthquake for us was literally a show-stopper, an earth-shaking, somewhat frightening and unexpected finale to a good performance. Luckily, no deaths or major injuries have been reported so far - here's hoping that things don't get worse down here in this seismically active country. 

A Poem...on Contentment

Contentment

Oh! What a joy to be content,
to think about a life well-spent.
The negative thoughts, we rearrange
and accept the things we cannot change.
We strive to be as happy as can be
and share good feelings with you and me!

Meanings and Musings...on Contentment

What a great song. Bobby McFerrin basically summarizes my entire post below!

So, my last post was maybe a bit intense, and possibly harsh...however when contemplating what to write about next I realized that so far, that's kind of what this blog is about. Not so much about "real" life as it is about ideals, about tough subjects and tough concepts. I'm sure that eventually I'll get to writing about everyday things more, with more lighthearted frivolity, especially now that I have a working digital camera! But, right now, I want to write about being happy, and being content. 

Not to be stereotypical, but I think guys are often better at this than girls. Not always, but in my experience this has been generally true - maybe it's hormonal or something. A lot of girls love to imagine romance and enjoy having romantic things happening to them, and this sometimes gets us into trouble. Sometimes we stop appreciating what's already there, and what we already have, be it in a relationship, or in our wardrobes or shoe collections, in our schedules for the weekend, etc.

We've all been there - weekends where we've got nothing to do and no one to hang out with, and our friends are all traveling or going to parties we haven't been invited to, or touring with an opera they're playing in the orchestra for (as I am this weekend!). 
Everyone you know (including the students that you teach, some of whom are in primary school, in my case!) is going somewhere amazing for vacation and you've never set foot out of your home country, or haven't been anywhere in a long time. 
Or your friend's relationship seems so much more happy and affectionate or in some way, better than yours. 
Or, you don't own an iPhone or fancy car or nice house or beautiful clothes and so many people around you do that you are starting to feel insignificant and that you're missing something, because you can see directly, right in front of you, how great these things are.

This is what I am going to refer to as the "grass is greener on the other side" syndrome. Sometimes, the solution is simply to stop overreacting to our feelings, and to stop thirsting for drama. We can do this by recognizing what we are feeling and appreciating that our feelings are there, but not acting on them for a little while, a few hours at least, and letting ourselves recover from the initial burst of the emotion and regain our powers of conscious, logical thought. 

That is what the often-hated phrase "calm down" actually means - recovering from that initial surprise that a strong feeling like anger or jealousy, letting the harshest of the effects wear off before dealing with the possible causes if the feeling persists. Telling someone to "calm down" can feel like a high-pressure and very stressful request, because in a state of strong emotion, it's quite impossible to instantly be calm. 

It's a good idea to try to do some activity in the meantime to help divert your focus, even if this activity is calling or writing to a friend who you can trust and talk to about your feelings. Otherwise, you can try channeling your emotional energy into going on a run, drawing a picture or photography, helping a friend, practicing an instrument, or even writing, as these activities force you to think about something else for awhile. (I can testify to this working - guess how this blog post came to be?) Or take a nap, or listen to happy music, to try not to think about anything at all. There are loads of things you can do. 

Then, after we've let the edge wear off we should be able to determine why we're feeling the way we're feeling. Maybe you are not happy with how you look, or the stuff you have, the places you've been, or the person/people you are with. But a lot of the solution now is a shift in mindset, or a shift in goals.

If you don't like the way you look, you can exercise and eat healthy, and set fitness goals, which will enable you to look and feel healthy. You can select different clothes, consult fashion-savvy friends, and for girls, try makeup, to achieve the look you've admired on others. But beyond that, you must learn the art of contentment, being happy with the state of things about yourself that you cannot change. Happy people are beautiful. 

If you aren't happy with the stuff you have, try to decide what's really important for you to own, and get rid of everything that you don't care about so that you can invest more of your efforts into what's important to you. Set savings goals and work towards getting what you want most. If it is unfeasible for you to afford the things you desire even through saving, you'll have to decide if it's worth working more or getting another job. And if that's impossible, then again we come back to learning to be content. You've tried your best, but will have to make do with what you can get. May as well try to be happy in spite of this, instead of allowing the negative feelings to take over.

Same with travel or learning new skills - if you really want to do these things, do them! Save up to go on a big trip, or take up a new and fascinating hobby like: salsa dancing, playing an instrument, learning Russian, painting landscapes, there are classes for just about everything out there, and having no one to do these things with is no excuse to not do them, if you're open to it you'll meet new people along the way and through these channels maybe even be happier about the friends you have. Live without regrets over things you did not do but could have.

As for relationships, we've got to make sure that we appreciate all the things that our partner does for us, or would do for us if we needed it. It's so easy to look at romantic movies, and even real life examples, and start thinking about all the things we don't have rather than being happy about what we do have. If you are persistently unhappy despite your best efforts, and you really think you could be happier in another relationship, then it might be time for a change. 

A simple change in mindset can do wonders as well. 
My upcoming weekend could be described as living my dream of playing music for a living, getting to travel with friends and stay in a hotel overnight, and playing for an opera that people will go see. To some people, that probably sounds quite exciting. However, if I described it differently, even just in my head, for example: an early morning trip on a crowded bus full of obnoxious people (singers), playing mediocre music to a small-town audience and missing out on a weekend of relaxing, doing what I want, and catching up on sleep after late-night rehearsals the week before, a sacrifice rather than an exciting experience, then I will probably feel negatively towards it and other people will probably view it as less appealing and interesting. Your life is really what you make of it!

It isn't logical to continue to be unhappy if there is an alternative to your situation. But we all need to give contentment a fair shot. In every aspect of our lives.

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight