The pros and cons of being employed

I am, it has been well documented, a bizarre person leading an interesting life (or, at least, a boring life that I hype up). This, alongside my severe laziness and lack of commitment to writing adventures, explains my lack of posting in the past...several months. However, there is another factor that has a hand in this, and that is my employment status. As you may know, I previously earned my keep doing menial, unenjoyable tasks at a hairdressing salon. This job was ripped away from me in a fashion I'd rather not delve into, and suddenly I was left with free time, improved eating habits and lowered stress levels. Unfortunately, thanks to my unavoidable need for money, and my grandmother's meddling, I have been working for the past two months in a new job, at a small skincare shop.

This job has many things causing it to trump my last - for one thing, I love the people I'm working with (and I am actually working with other people, which is always a bonus). I have endured many an emotional time with the girls, and really, we're all very close. I love the products we sell, and the freebies are always a bonus. It's convenient, the pay is better, I actually get lunch breaks, the clientele are less commonly miserable and/or irritable. As with all jobs, there are some things that are less fun than others, but I tend to make the most of even the menial things - using the hot glue gun is always more fun when pretending it's a real gun. In general, though, it's a great place to work. That being said, there are certain things about the mere having of a job that fall into both positive and negative categories.

Pros

- Less of the "sitting on my arse and doing nothing". Having a job gives me a reason to get up, put on nice clothes, actually try and make myself presentable, go out and be forced into social contact with people. I just in general feel better about myself when I'm working.
- More money - because who wouldn't welcome that? More money also generally means more freedom, and nicer things. I welcome nicer things whenever possible. I can support my lavish lifestyle more freely.
- A sense of superiority over my jobless friends. I'm the first to admit that I'm a terrible person.
- Relationships with people I haven't seen every single day of my life. It's the ability to be myself (and tell all my old stories) to a completely new group of people, without the effort of throwing myself into terrifying new social situation.

Cons

- My eating habits go to hell, even with an overly health-conscious coworker who refuses to allow me to eat unhealthily. This tends to lead to a great deal more sneaking around with chocolates and cans of coke, discreet skittles and more.
- As does my social life.
- As does my self-esteem - I'm sensitive, okay?
- As does my confidence in my ability to function normally around other people.

I'm pretty pathetic.

On another note, my mother has plans to make a blog. I suspect that she intends to do this in order to beat me, because I suspect it is my mother's goal to be more liked on the internet than I am, hence her dedication to Twitter. It's only a matter of time before she's responding to creepy non-questions on Formspring or gaining a legion of Tumblr followers. I know that she also believes she would be a better blogger than some she reads, and this is probably true - I have inherited my skewed, strange view on the world from her. 
However, despite all this, I do love her, and will direct you there when this blog comes into being.

A post that is, essentially, word porn.

There are very few causes I get into (apart from general human rights issues and getting people to own up to their idiocy - but I don't count that). This morning, however, I came across the Oxford Dictionary's "Save The Words" website, in which they attempt to save an array of obscure, brilliant, near-defunct words by getting all of the readers to "adopt a word". There are hundreds of excellent words to browse through and add to your vocabulary, and if you're a sucker for a good vocabulary addition like me, it may take hours to choose which brilliant word will be your new baby. Once you've adopted a word, it's your duty to get that word back into your day-to-day vocabulary, share it with your friends, spread the word tirelessly - and this idea, I love.
So I adopted the word squiriferous, which means gentlemanly or chilvalrous: "When he held the door open for me, I was shocked that he was so squiriferous". My friend Sarah adopted vacivity, which may be my new favourite essay word - it means an emptiness, and it's delightfully simple to slip into your everyday sentences. Some other great words I've learnt today include:

Vapous – (adj.) flat, bland



Kexy – (adj.) brittled, withered


Scaevity – (n.) unluckiness


Crassulent – (adj.) very fat, grossly obese


Cacozealous – (aaj.) badly immitated


Egrote – (v.) to pretend to be ill


Latibule – (n.) hiding place


Roblet – (v.) lead astray


Tussicate – (v.) to cough


Blateration – (n.) babble, chatter


Vacivity – (n.) emptiness


Lubency – (n.) willingness


Pudify – (v.) to cause embarrassment


Quaeritate – (v.) to ask


Magistricide – (v.) to kill a teacher or master


Temerate – (v.) to break a bond or promise


Drollic – (adj.) pertaining to puppet shows


Foppotee – (n.) a simple-minded person


Epalprebate – (adj.) lacking eyebrows


Krioboly – (n.) sacrifice of many rams


Diffibulate – (v.) to unbutton


Eicastic – (adj.) immitative


Prandicle – (n.) small meal


Parepochism – (n.) an error in dating or assigning a time period


Starrify – (v.) to decorate with stars


Spicious – (adj.) of thick consistency


Mariturient – (adj.) eager to marry


Amorevolous – (adj.) affectionate, doting


Hemerine – (adj.) daily


Tudiculate – (v.) to bruise or pound


Sevedical – (adj.) speaking harsh or cruel words


Welmish – (adj.) of pale or sickly colour


Gnathonize – (v.) to flatter


Lugent – (adj.) sobbing, grieving


Venustation – (n.) the act of becoming beautiful


Misqueme – (v.) to displease
 
Pantdress - (n.) a women's one-piece outfit with pants as the bottoms - a romper
 
I can't help but love someone who puts a spin on the common language, so henceforth:
I hope you experience minimal scaevity in your kriboly, nor do you encounter lugent folk or encounter a scathefire which leaves you epalpebrate. Keep in mind that pantdresses will always fail to gnathonize, and may interrupt your venustation, and tudiculate your dignity out of you. Fill the vacivity of your vapous life and enhance your vocabulary so no one considers you a foppotee, and enjoy your next prandicle. I would hate to pudify, but it would will be most squiriferous of you to give this a shot.
 
(Note: I have never advertised anything this shamelessly without being paid but I suppose that this quirky little effort really spoke to me - if that's not the nerdiest thing you've heard today, then you probably hand out with people not dissimilar to myself. Don't hold it against me.)

In which I discovered that there are good people in the world

Of course, the title is slightly exaggerated. I'm not stupid, but I'm also not one of those intellectual, "humanity is doomed; the earth is in danger because humans are by nature greedy and selfish and evil" kind of people, because I know that there are good people, who will do things I could not even imagine doing. Do I necessarily count myself as one of those people? Eh, I try to, I think we all do, but in reality, I sometimes struggle with the whole "good person" tag. However, I'd like to reach back to an entry I wrote a little while back in response to an anti-Semitic article in the local magazine. It was an article that filled me, as someone considered to be a part of a minority - and even simply as a human being - with anger at the complete lack of consideration and awareness of other cultures in this modern "multicultural Australia".

I'd like to mention that I am not an avid reader of the Beast (the magazine in which the original article was found); it can be trashy, but on occasion I do find articles of interest or entertainment when I have nothing else to read. When the original article was published, I was sick, and I was going through a period of being extremely reactive to anything that offended me in the slightest. This article succeeded in ruining my day, and for a while, my faith that we were making progress in the terms of acceptance of religion and different cultures. The author, Duncan Horscroft, is probably a lovely guy, but when an author, do you really want an article that has such thinly veiled (possibly unintentional) racism in it? For a while, I actually toyed with editing my response and sending it into the magazine, but by then we had thrown it away and I didn't have the address and the by and by is that regrettably, I wasn't able to have a word in an issue very close to my heart. I thought that was the end of this issue being discussed, however luckily, it was not.

I don't know who Brett Chester is, but I'd like to personally thank him for the letter he wrote into the Beast, which was selected as the Letter of the Month for the October 2010 issue. He didn't have the same open-ended forum as I opted to vent on, but his response actually went and did something (an area in which I have often had trouble) - I sincerely hope that everyone who read the original article and used that as the only means to form their opinion on the issue reads his response and takes on the points he has made, which I would argue are more valid and even far more neutral than the original article. What the article initially failed at was keeping both sides of the story in equal consideration - religious necessities were pushed aside to make way for the views from some expensive house - and while I am not saying the points raised in Horscroft's article are wrong, or even necessarily unimportant,  I would have liked to have seen an article that entertained both points of view and perhaps did not have such a blatant bias in a way which I feel expressed nothing but a level of ignorance and intolerance.

Chester made a lot of good points, which I won't go into (several points were ones that I tried to make, but failed, because I got quite caught up in the anti-Semitic bias of the subject matter alone, rather than simply the way the author handled it inappropriately). He caught the caption to the picture, which I had not even noticed, and cleverly commented on the soundness of the points raised towards the end of the article. None of this is what really matters, though - I think the most important thing is that the original article was not left as the be all and end all of the issue. I am actually relieved that someone else got to fight back, to voice their opinions on the issue, and did it so eloquently and efficiently (in a way that I wish I could do, but I'm too much of a rambler).

So good on him, and I'd like to see more active responses next time something offensive to you comes up - as a Jewish girl, I'm going to fight forever to have racism gone, as well as from the media (along with other things), but I don't hold any power by myself. My issues lie solely in the fact that surely everyone deserves the right to lead their life the way they have decided to, and to do this without critical judgement from people with no authority on the subject, and I think this is a statement that can be widely agreed with. I want to see more stands taken because everyone has a right to an opinion, and these opinions should be voiced alongside others. There are people who will take action, and that's a great thing. I might be lazy, I might never actually get around to do anything, but I'm not going to stop voicing my thoughts when I see something suss going on, and as long as there are other people doing that as well, then I'm reasonably proud to be part of this society instead of ashamed that articles like the original one are what is accepted as fact.

(Sidenote: a lot of good people do things through other means. If you're a good person, go on doing that, however you choose to)
(Sidenote two: I actually think we are all inherently good and bad. I'm not going to go on and on about my "are we good people?" opinion because, trust me, I've had that conversation before and it takes hours)
(Sidenote three: Apologies for my rambling, several sidenotes and occasionally fading away from the topic - sometimes I just write and don't actually realise what I'm doing.)

(Sidenote four: sorry about the infrequent posting, I've been busy and I've gone through a lapse in ever actually having anything to say. Which is out of character.)

A rant about Judaism, racism, and magazine article that drove me insane

Okay, look. I'm quite an open-minded person, but I'm also very opinionated - in my opinion, you don't have to be one or the other, and it is very possible to be both. I have certain values that I hold particularly high, and personally am very rights orientated. To me, it's of utmost importance that people have the right to free speech, the right to life, the right to feel loved, etc. Cheesy, but I'm like that. So I was reading an article in the free magazine for the Eastern Beaches of Australia, and I've got to say: Offence? Taken. Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt that the author is a great journalist, or a kind-hearted, tolerant person, but the fashion in which this article is written just strikes a chord with me.

Next thing: I'm Jewish. It's not a big deal, don't get racist on me, but it's the way I've been brought up, the belief system I've come to accept. I'm not exactly what you'd call observant, but I go to Synagogue on major festivals and have Friday night dinners with the entire family. If you want to post nasty comments, go ahead, but haters should stop hating - I know that people practice all different religions, are perfectly entitled to, and I know plenty of wonderful people from all across the spectrum. So, again, this.

On first glance, the article's not to bad. There are moments that are genuinely interesting, and border on nice - "Australia is a multi-cultural nation that accepts all races and religions and the majority of people hold no grudge against anyone for practising their own beliefs" - and I appreciate that, because it's true. Even now, anti-semitism isn't something I experience on a regular basis, and people in general are more curious than rude. However, I feel these moments of "acceptance" are purely there in order to cover up the rest of the racist undertones of the article.

The main point of the article centres around the positioning of the Jewish eruv (an eruv, just to clarify, is a way of "closing in" an area so Jews are able to carry - things like strollers, keys, handbags - on Shabbat, Saturday, our day of rest), and our disregard of the laws when we took it upon ourselves to reconstruct a pole to hold the eruv together. I don't personally observe Shabbat (I should, I know, don't shoot), but it's an essential of Jewish, observant life. If an observant Jew wishes to attend synagogue on Saturday, who are you to deny them the right to push their baby's stroller, or to carry their keys in their pocket? You preach religious acceptance, and then you attempt to shine a negative light on something that actually helps Jews integrate into modern society? Excuse me, but that just doesn't seem right. We start off with a nice little tale of a Muslim cab driver who pulled over to do his afternoon prayer on the street. We get the obligatory "Now, I'm not one to bag anyone's religious beliefs..." statement, but the very nature of the rest of the article only serves to contradict that statement.

I know that from reading what an eruv is, you might possibly nod your head along and go "Oh, yes, well I can see how that could be confining for people of other cultures within the area, just because some minority are Jewish, doesn't mean everyone has to be..." etc. But an eruv? The eruv on the Eastern Suburbs is a wire, more common than not hidden amongst the mess of electrical wires atop our telegraph poles. Along beach fronts, it runs through railings, and if you weren't aware it was there, you would have no idea it even existed. No eruv had ever troubled you before, why should it now?

Well, apparently when the wealthy people living with their beautiful views of the coast found all of the telegraph poles along the coastal walk an eyesore, and had them placed underground (the author notably stresses that "the residents went through the proper channels , received permission from the council and the job was done without any problems"), in the process causing the eruv to be incomplete. And then, shock horror, the Jews had to ruin everything and go - without permission - put up an ugly pole to complete their eruv again. I know, how dare they! Jews from across the area able to make the trek to their synagogue with their babies in strollers and their water bottles in hand so that when heading uphill they can save themselves from dehydration? Despicable. Ah, but the author argues that his point is not this, but "when the rules are blatantly flaunted and proper processes are not respected, all for the benefit of one particular group, it does become a bit hard to accept". Why? Why is that any harder to accept than anything that other people do? I oppose to your problem with Muslims publically participating in their daily prayers. You appear to have issues with this, contradicting laws that allow us the freedom to our own religion, for the benefit of only one group - ignorant people who don't accept the cultures of others. So maybe think a bit more before making such bold statements.

Another issue that is clearly a contributing factor to all of this nonsense is ignorance. "Maybe when the new pole is in place we can get our Muslim taxi-driver mate to come down at 4:30 one afternoon to bless it!" I'm not even going to go into the many ways that phrase offends me, or fails to make sense at all. We're all just scum, anyway.

So even though this rant has poor grammar and even poorer structure, I urge you to next time take crap you read about other religions and their customs with a grain of salt. We're not doing everything possible to ruin your life, we're just trying to live ours the best we can. Racism is a hateful, baseless thing that I wouldn't be able to justify in any circumstance. And while I accept that this author is writing to cover an issue, whether or not controversial, maybe next time both sides of a story should be explored. I get that you don't want your beautiful Bronte views obstructed by some pesky telegraph poles, but I don't want my beautiful religion obstructed by someone who doesn't want to take everyone's perspectives into account.

I apologise if that was terrible, I was angry. I get like that sometimes. End rant.

A rant in which I defend Canberra

I am going to admit straight off that within the people I know, Canberra is seen as a bit of a hole. Essentially, us proud, sheltered (that one refers specifically to us) Sydneysiders have our beaches and our multiple shopping centres and more people than you can poke a stick at, and we tend to look down on Canberra. After all, the ACT is essentially an island in the middle of New South Wales as far as we're concerned. We all think we're better off, and more privelleged than if we lived in Canberra, or one of the surrounding little towns. But having just returned from Canberra, I'd actually like to say a few words in its defence.

Though we've been brought up on a diet of looking down on tiny little Canberra, I actually quite like it there. I've been there so many times now that when my family drives around I can point at nearly every hotel and recall the time I stayed there. I like a lot of things about Canberra, and I'll list them in my little rant, which is kind of going to be a rave, in retrospect. It just frustrates me. If there's anyone from Canberra reading this, are you as bitchy about us as we are about you? Because I'd hate to think that we give that bad of an expression.

But before I get into my minor little love affair with Canberra, I'd like to point out that I am and will probably always be a big city girl. I might not live right in a CBD, but I love the constant exposure to different people and loud noises and interesting sights and catching busy trains and eating out and going to shops with giant groups of people and dominating entire movie theatres etc. If I'm not in a city environment for a very long period of time, you have to give me a beach, at the very least, so I can occupy myself with the sun and the surf and a trashy book. I spend my summers on the beach, but that's about as relaxed as you get with me. And while I love and appreciate a short little weekend in the country, if I was to move there, I'd be kicking down the walls. My grandparents used to take me to a little country town every summer, and if I lived in a town like that for more than a week, I would be bored out of my mind. 

That being said, by rights, Canberra is a city. Sure, there's no beach, which is kind of sad - I am ridiculously spoilt when it comes to where I live - but when you're actually in the city (which takes up quite a large amount of the state), Canberra's actually quite excellent. I know that probably sounds quite derrogatory, but I mean it in the best possible way. I love that if you're staying near the city centre, you're spoilt for choice when it comes to nice little restaurants. Where I stayed, I could walk to several all-night supermarkets, a Korean BBQ restaurant, a shopping centre, a Baskin & Robbins, a gym, an Irish pub, an Oportos (score)...ideal.

You know what else I absolutely loved? Despite this probably occuring in most cities, there was a place within walking distance where you could shop for shoes (ridiculously heeled, glittery, buckled up shoes, alongside Converse and Skechers, and green flats which have thousands of tiny swear words covering them) whilst getting your newest body piercing (you're spoilt for choice here too). I loved that you can drive to the snow in a couple of hours, that the staff at the national park were extremely friendly, that when you need desperately to kill time you can drive around the embassies, that the woman behind the counter of a place I was buying presents at had a discussion with me about Rocky Road...I love a lot of things about it. Sometimes small isn't automatically bad.

Sure, the Sydney CBD may or may not be the size of pretty much the entirety of Canberra, but there are things about that place that are just great, despite the negative hype. Okay, the road names aren't very original, and the consistensy of signage in the area is ridiculous (Michelago? Micelago? I don't know what's right and what's wrong, but c'mon guys, spellcheck!), and the sign for speeding on the way into the city reads "Drive N Text, U B Next"...but don't judge a city that can't do anything to shake off that reputation. It's actually not that bad.