Finding my zen

For a few weeks now, J and I have been talking about giving up TV for a little while. Even just a month.

By giving up, I mean not watching the news, the tv shows etc - anything that is on tv. We would probably still continue using the tv to watch movies and documentaries - anything we choose to put on. It all sounds doable except the news. About 80% of our TV watching is news and current affairs related. We're both such information junkies. Like I said to J, "...but I have to know what's going on in the world"

But do I really HAVE to watch the news every morning and evening?

Besides, I still have the internet. And Twitter. So it's not like I'm going to be a hermit. We just won't be watching crap like you tend to sometimes, when you can't be bothered getting off the couch and finding something else to do.

From an article called The Zen TV Experiment --

TV and the Illusion of Knowing

Marshall McLuhan says TV opens out onto an electronic global village. It would seem, rather, that it gives us only the illusion of being. It reinforces security by presenting danger, ignorance by presenting news, lethargy by presenting excitement, isolation by promising participation. The media confines reality to itself. And it limits knowledge by giving the illusion of knowledge. In the same way that the most effective way to deflect, diffuse and terminate a social movement is to announce that it has been achieved (the feminist movement must contend with this on an almost daily basis), the most effective way to deflect inquiry is to present it as fulfilled. TV acts in this guise as a thinking presentation device which offers non-experience as experience and not-knowingness as knowing.

It's not really that hard, I don't think. I think it will go a long way towards finding my zen. I just have to give up the need to know what the River Boys will get up to next.  ;-)

Happy New Year :)

There's something about the 1st of January that brings about a universal positivity isn't there? No matter how much people say you shouldn't wait till the new year to start new things and have new goals, we always want to make a fresh beginning on the 1st of January. It made me want to blog a bit today :)

Nothing particularly exciting to talk about, really. I'm spending New Year's day with the boy (#bliss), couch surfing and watching The Walking Dead. I am really torn about this show. Everyone I know has told me it's amazing and addictive but I really, REALLY dislike zombies and OMG, the gore factor is.... well, they kill a zombie, cut up it's stomach and go through its guts to make sure it didn't eat one of their missing friends...you get the drift?

On the other hand, the drama and the suspense is ridiculously amazing. It's an AMC show. The same people who made one of my all time favourite shows - Breaking Bad. So I'm giving Walking Dead a shot. Besides J loves it so I don't really have a choice. ;-)

The plans for the rest of the day involve a beach swim and then some KFC. Haha. Neither J nor I have had KFC for a LONG time. About 12 months for him and probably 2-3 years for me (I really don't like KFC). But the KFC double burger is back and J has to have it and well, I said I'll give him company and have a zinger  Happy New Year to us ;-)

Tomorrow it's back to the gym, back to work and back to real life.

Sweet dreams

So last night after my usual "Let's sleep/ Let's worry" dramas, when I finally fell asleep I had dreams.

Dream 1
I woke up in bed with someone pulling at my leg. Turns out it was my sister and she was trying to kill me. Except my sister wasn't actually my sister. It was my other sister - my sister's long lost twin, who we didn't know existed. I'm not sure why she was trying to kill me but she looked quite evil.

Dream 2
A friend and I are invited to some amazing party in Melbourne (I don't know why Melbourne and not Sydney). When we get there, we learn the Braxton boys are going to be there and we're super excited because you know, Heath's a druggie turned good who's just lost his baby and his girlfriend's a psycho. And he's hot. Brax has fake stencil tattoos but I'll ignore that, he's such a bad boy with a good heart. And he's hot. Casey, young, reckless and always in trouble but he's a good kid you know. And he's hot. Their dysfunctionality just makes them hotter. Except, they come out to party with us in the real world of my dreams and I'm devo. They're all ugly and white (not being racist, they've just got the whole Summer Bay tan going usually) and look nothing like what they do on TV. My real world of my dreams is shattered. The Braxton boys are ugly.

Conclusion? I watch waaaay too much Home & Away (cue for you to judge me. Both dreams are based of recent happenings on the show.) Seriously, I need a life and/or need to find something better to do 7pm, weekdays.

Dhoom Machale!

Last night SBS had a new reality show on - Bollywood Star. It's a competition to find a Bollywood star in Australia for one of India's leading movie producers/ directors. Last night was the audition process and it was pretty funny. I am keen to watch more.

After the show, SBS had a Bollywood movie on. Now I'm not usually a Bollywood kinda gal but all the singing and dancing on Bollywood Star got me a bit enthusiastic so I spent my Saturday night watching Dhoom 2. What was funnier though is poor J got stuck watching it with me. I think he enjoyed it and was pretty amused with exactly how far Bollywood stretches the concept of "willing suspension of disbelief."

I was talking to my mum while we were watching the movie and told her J was watching it with me.

Mum: You're making him watch a Bollywood movie? He will get a weird idea about India.
Me: He knows me, he already thinks Indians are weird.
Mum: That's true. 

And now, J has been singing "Dhoom Machale" since last night.

Day 5: Stress

I really thought I would write something good today. An actual post, not just some words for the sake of a post.

But I'm very, very stressed right now. Don't really want to say why so I'll just say Hello All and now I'm going back to watching Good News Week.

Oh, and cheer for Netherlands tomorrow. Do.