Using my wit for Evil.

I am a very witty person, sometime my comebacks are so good I would like to give myself a pat on the back. (Ok, maybe not so much, but I am confident in my well-thought, quick fire answers). The problem is I don't use it to put any good into the world.

On the contrary, I tend to use to make it suck more.

I am a lot better at coming up with insults and compliments. When somebody pisses me off, what immediately comes out of my mouth is "pie-eating cock goblin", but when somebody does something good for me I respond with something like "you're so... nice!" Really? Nice?! I couldn't come up with anything better?

I pride myself on my vocabulary, and I could have said that person was generous, kind or the best thing to happen to me since slided bread, but I went with nice.

I'm not sure if this is just another way in which I am a product of my generation, or how the internet had ruined me for life or what. I've just realised my twitter feed contains about 7 complaints/insults to every 1 good-natured thing I have to say. Also, those 7 tweets are much more interesting, funny and well thought out than the 1 outlier.

M.

New Obsession Alert!

   So I find that this is a common thing on the internet, or maybe I just tend to socialize with like-minded people, but people don't just like things. They're obsessed.

   When I have a new interest it is my top priority on getting as much information as fast as possible, becoming an overnight expert on a new tv show, an athlete's career or that new book I just finished. They are usually short lived; they burn bright, but they burn fast.

   I will sacrifice sleep in order to watch every single video there is on YouTube about that thing, I will read as many news articles as I can sneak during my work hours, and I will most certainly follow at least 5 Twitter accounts that are related to that thing. Some would consider it borderline stalking. And I will share that information with anybody who is around long enough to hear me say "so I have a new obsession." It annoys my friends, my family members and co-workers, but after the first weekend of "did you knows" I'm usually able to direct my attention to Tumblr.

  Some people seem concerned, my therapist said it was a healthy thing since I have a novelty-seeking personality. Everybody has an opinion. But as long as I'm not hurting myself or others, I say let it be.

What about you, my chers, who obsessive or unobsessive are you? About what?

M.

Buzzfeed gets me

something Good for something Great

   I feel like I talk a lot about my job lately, but being in the office (or work related things) from 9am-6pm everyday (and sometimes on the weekends) there's rarely other things in my life worth talking about. (Which is sad.. I know, I know.)

  What has been swirling in my mind lately is how often I get job "offers" while doing things for the job I currently have. I get to meet very interesting and influential people who somehow fall for my smoke and mirror tricks of thinking I'm a competent young professional.  I've been offered "job security" here and there, and one particular gentleman has jokingly placed bids on my future salary with my boss over a couple drinks.

  I'm aware that those are not official job offers and I'd be stupid to jump into any conclusions from these simple matter of fact statements. At the same time, though, people don't need to say those things to me, and I'm tempted to find that there is something true in those words, that they'd at least pay a little more attention to my resume if I decided to send it in.

  But then I remind myself that I'm leaving for London in 15 months to pursue my dream of living there and getting my master's, which is what I've wanted forever. I don't want to accept an awesome job that I'll have to quit shortly just because I have something awesomer (sorry, I know) coming along.

  In the confused mental state that will last all of my 20s (and probably continue from there on) it is a hard choice to be faced with, specially in the occasions when things at my current job aren't as pleasant as I'd like them to be, and my novelty seeking personally is already yearning for a new city and new faces.

 It would be great if all the world's problems were as terrible as my own.

But I'm interested to know, how often do you guys have to give up something good for something you know is better, specially when that thing might be in the not so near future?

M.

On meeting people I look up to.

   So if you read this blog, you know all about my J.K. Rowling fiasco, if you don't, click the link to find out how I choked in front of one of my biggest idols. Spoilers, I choke.

   This past week I was in France for the Cannes Lions festival, and it was amazing. The festival itself, the networking opportunities and so on and so forth. But I have to admit what I liked the most about it was meeting people I look up to.

  Before heading off to France I saw that the Sorted boys tweeted about being there and lost my mind momentarily. Then I tweeted them, all nonchalant, and invited them to come to our lounge and try some caipirinhas. To which they replied. (Be still my fangirl heart.) Long story short, after some mild (or not so much) stalking on my part I did get to meet them and they were as lovely as anybody would expect. I also got to meet Dan and Phil who are a lot taller than I imagined but just as lovely!

   What I learned from my sad sad story with J.K. Rowling was that even if I was nervous or starstruck I better get ahold of myself quickly, because I could be missing out on some very interesting conversations with really top notch people. Regardless of how much I look up to them, or how successful they are, as I curled up into a ball at that theatre in Bath and cried in front of strangers I promised myself I would never miss opportunities like that again.
And I didn't!

M.

SortedFood boys enjoying a Caipirinha at the FilmBrazil Lounge - Cannes Lions 2013

 

Doing it anyways...

   So it's no secret that one of my favorite blogs is All Groan Up, it is funny, insightful and just plain old good read. I was particularly chuffed when I learned Paul (who follows me on twitter, cough cough) was releasing his book, 101 Secrets for your Twenties.

   It was particularly great to see that he had set up a contest for his readers to become part of the book, submitting their own secret that either got them through their twenties or is helping them now. So I wrote something.

   In all fairness, maybe "wrote" is putting it nicely, I jotted something down and sent over, without thinking too much about it. I find that my best writing comes out as "mind-vomit", and I can ruin a text like nobody's business by overediting and over thinking the main idea. I have no expectations to be published or even picked as the top 100 of all the submissions  because of the lack of effort I put into it. But I did it anyways, because I love to write, and would have done it even if this contest didn't exist at all.

   So that's the topic for today, boys and girls, not what have you done lately that you expected no results, but why did you do it anyways?

M.

Business Etiquette of the Digital Generation

   I have recently been reprimanded by a former boss about not thanking him/her properly after he/she helped get my current and very exciting job.

   I was very puzzled by this, for I made a point of writing him/her an e-mail literally as soon as the interview was over. I was so thankful for this opportunity and I felt like I expressed that on a very well thought out e-mail. Only to learn, months later, that he/she was expecting a hand written card and flowers.

  Now, here's some important details to this story. I live in a different country than this former boss, I have also just graduated college so it is universally known that I am broke, and to top it all off, I am 22 years old.

  So my question is, when was the last time you hand wrote a letter?

  I could get into the point of how we communicate only electronically now and things lose their values etc. But the point I'm trying to make is that I didn't send them an email because I didn't care, on the contrary, I meant to express my gratitude as fast as I could.

  Is my generation missing all the lessons of business etiquette or have the practices just changed and some people haven't adapted to it? I find it antiquated to send them flowers that will die after two weeks of serving no purpose, but maybe I am in the wrong and should have bough a card, hand written it, then posted it so they could get my thanks 2 to 3 weeks later?

What is your take on this?

M.

The Purple Pack

For Halloween 2010 I dressed up as Dora the Explorer.

I made a quick run to Wal-Mart and purchased a purple backpack for $5, and I haven't parted with it since.

It is deceivingly big and can comfortably hold everything I need for a 5 day trip. It fits my life so perfectly I have used it as a purse, as a school bag and my permanent travel companion. It has been with me to New York, DC, Florida, Colorado, Texas, California, Illinois and all of the UK.

The Purple Pack in Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland. 

It has developed a personality of its own, I like to think that it has changed as much as I have with  the things it's seen and experienced. The pins and doodles are each scars and stories of each new place. I have been keeping journals since I was in 5th grade and I like to have a notebook specific for each trip. (Post about it to come later). But this backpack is a collection of all the stories, it is sort of a friend who was there with me through every trip.

I could get a newer, better one. With more space and better design with comfortable straps. But I don't want it. Just like my old beat up Converse, it has been with me everywhere, it was there when I stopped making excuses for staying put ("not enough money, not old enough, don't know anybody, still in school" you've heard them all) and I like to think that Dora's spirit did dawn on me with this backpack and I finally started exploring.

It became a sort of running joke with my friend Carmela, when she followed my lead and dressed up as Dora in 2011, acquiring for herself a purple pack of her own. Amongst many things, we share the love of travel, and now a recent graduate, I hope she gets a bit of the explorer spirit herself.

M.